"Hey guys! Dude, the waves are going off, let's go to the beach," Steve Domecus said.
Doesn't quite sound like Blacksburg, does it?
Well, for three new Hokie baseball players, that used to be college life.
Outfielders Domecus, Mike Kaminski and relief pitcher Ben Rowen left the California routine they grew accustomed to in order to continue their collegiate baseball careers after junior college, and they each took unique paths to get here.
Domecus started out at the University of California Santa Barbara and redshirted his freshman year.
He got some playing time in his redshirt freshman season, but not as much as he felt he deserved.
"I hit really well in the fall at Santa Barbara, and the coach was just like, 'Hey, you're going to be a designated hitter against left-handed pitchers only,'" Domecus said.
Unhappy with the situation, Domecus moved on to Moorpark College for one season before choosing Tech over established baseball powers such as Texas, the University of San Diego, current No. 1 ranked University of California Irvine, and Fresno State, which won the College World Series last year.
"Going through a process like that, you really got to make sure you're going to the right place because I guess I kind of messed that up the first time around going to Santa Barbara, and that's why I ended up redshirting. So, I came here," Domecus said. "The coaches treated me right when I was here. I just got a good vibe, and I felt like they weren't going to sell me out.
"Some of the other schools, I thought the coach would sell their first born son to win a College World Series, and I came here, and they were in it for me. If they're in it for me, they're in it for their players, and that's going to be good for the team because we're going to start winning."
Domecus was motivated less by the potential to win the College World Series and more by the prospect of being a key part of turning a struggling Tech program around.
"I could have gone to Texas, and they're in contention to go to the College World Series every year, or I could have come here and worked on something big that's going on now," he said. "Our team is trying to put some wins together here, make the ACC playoffs, hopefully win the ACC playoffs.
"I wanted to be part of something that meant more than just being at another school that's supposed to go there - supposed to do this. I wanted to be on a team that pulled off the upset, kind of the miracle team."
Like Domecus, Rowen started out at the Division I level but was cut from the team at Southern California in the fall of his freshman season. From there, he attended Los Angeles Harbor College for two years prior to his stint with the maroon and orange.
"It was interesting," Rowen said. "Actually, my junior college coach got an e-mail for a summer league in North Carolina, and then when I got there my coach sent out e-mails to (pitching coach Dave) Turgeon, and he came down and saw me, and he liked what he saw."
Only lightly recruited out of high school, Kaminski went straight to junior college to play at Cuesta College for two seasons. He initially was seen by head coach Pete Hughes at an all-star game. It wasn't much longer before Kaminski was set to play for Tech.
"I guess he saw me there, liked my swing, kept in contact," Kaminski said. "I came out here on a visit, loved the place, came to a football game. That's pretty much what got me."
The three junior college transfers have certainly paid off for Hughes.
Domecus currently holds a .408 batting average, the highest in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and ranks in the top 20 in hits, RBIs, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
Kaminski also holds a .355 batting average that ranks 14th in the ACC.
Despite two rough outings recently, Ben Rowen also has contributed, pitching 28 innings, often late when the game is on the line.
"Two of the top five players in the ACC, they're on base machines, they're athletic, they're good kids," Hughes said. "Those three kids have been invaluable to our program; great addition to a really young team that we had last year. They're a year older with a lot of experience, and to add those three older guys, it was the right thing to do."
Even though the three transfers are now highly regarded Division I players, Hughes maintains that luring them away from the comfort of California wasn't too difficult.
"A lot of the time on the west coast, they don't want to leave in high school," Hughes said. "When you get them in the junior college, they've been humbled a little bit by the recruiting process, and they're like, 'I don't care where I'm going, I just want to go to play at the highest level and reach my potential and go to a good school'."
With the instant success of junior college players comes the potential for them to also leave early.
Despite being drafted after a season at Moorpark, Domecus stayed in school, but he still has an eye on the upcoming draft.
"I'd love to get drafted again," he said. "I'd love to get drafted in a spot where I would want to go sign. At this point, I'm just not trying to worry about it ...I'm playing a game that I love, I've been playing it since I was two or three years old, and I'm basically getting paid since I've got a scholarship playing baseball.
"If I get drafted, that would be the optimal thing for me to happen. If I don't get drafted in a spot I like, I can come back to school next year, play baseball, finish my degree. It's basically a win-win for me."
Despite the risk of turnover, Hughes takes a calculated approach to taking on junior college players.
"We don't want to go JC every year because you don't build depth in your program, and it's a flip of the coin because you get those kids one year, and they get drafted because they're draft eligible or you get them for two years, and you keep turning your program over," Hughes said.
"We want to have some consistency so that's why we'll always recruit the incoming freshmen and try to have a good blend with the JC's, so that's kind of our recipe right now."
In addition to the three junior college transfers, freshman pitcher Clark Labitan hails from San Diego, Calif. Undersized at 5-foot-9 and overlooked by the California schools, Labitan ended up across the country to continue playing baseball.
"Honestly, Virginia Tech wasn't really an option for me," Labitan said. "I didn't really know anything about the school. The process was a little complicated for me. Size was a big deal. A lot of California schools didn't even look at me.
"I happened to go to a tournament in Georgia and (Coach) Turgeon happened to see me, and he really liked what I had. I came out here for a camp along with a teammate, Luke Erickson, and offered me a scholarship the next day right on the spot."
"He's going to be really good," Hughes said. "We've put him in a lot of situations because we've had some injuries to our bullpen and arms, but we've put that kid in a lot of situations that normal freshmen don't get put in ACC play out of the bullpen."
While all four players definitely miss the beach and the great weather, they have enjoyed their short time at Tech so far.
"Back in San Diego, colleges weren't a really big deal. Here, it's all about Virginia Tech or UVa. I love how you get all this attention, you feel like you're famous on this team," Labitan said. "You feel like if you go to this campus everyone knows you. Younger kids look up to you, older folks, and I like that the most. I've never been in that kind of environment before."
"I actually really love this campus," Domecus said. "This is one of those places where you walk on campus and you're a Hokie the first day you're here ... (It) doesn't matter that I'm from California, I'm a Hokie."